Spirit also known as MER-2 is a exploration robot active from 2004 to 2010. It landed January 4, 2004 three weeks before its twin which landed on the other side of the planet (Opportunity[MER-B]). The name was chosen from a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. Spirit got stuck in late 2009 and the last contact from Earth was in March 22, 2010.
Spirit was sent to last for a 90-sol mission which it completed. Spirit was aided with cleaning events which used more solar energy and it still ended up functioning for about 20 times longer than NASA expected. Spirit also ended up traviling 7.73km when it was planned to only drive 600m allowing more Mars exploration.
On May 1, 2009, Spirit got caught up in some soft soil. NASA began to do simulations on Earth on how to get it out of the soil but on January 26, 2010, it was announced that the rover was irrecoverable. Spirit continued to give stationary research until March 22, 2010 when communications were lost. The image to the right and above is a computer sketch of Spirit and the video to the right is the launch of both Spirit and Opportunity. The first one is Spirit because it was launched 3 weeks before Opportunity. The video below is Spirit getting stuck in some loose ground.
Equipment Failures
Spirit was prepared
Rock Abrasion Tool
to run for 90-sols but ended up running for 20 times that which leads to more stress on certain components ending up with some mechanical failures. On sol 778 Spirit's front right wheel stopped working, which affected the way it was to be driven. Engineers decided to drive it backwards which turned out to be useful because it cleared away soil and helped Spirit to be able to take pictures of things that it wouldn't have been able to before.
Scientific tools also started to show some wear over time. Over time the diamond in the Rock Abrasion Tool began to wear down and before long the tool was only able to be used to brush its targets. All of the other tools worked until contact was lost but near Spirit's end the MIMOS IIMössbauer spectrometer started to take much longer to produce results. it did this because it's cobalt-57 gamma ray source was nearing half life. The image to the right and above is the Rock Abrasion Tool on Spirit.
Design and Construction
Mars
Spirit and Opportunity are 6 wheeled, solar powered robots with the dimensions of 1.5m x 2.3m x 1.6m and weights of 180kg. The six wheels on the robots are for the rough terrain and each wheel had its own motor. Both Spirit and Opportunity have shields to protect the cables on the drilling mechanisms that are made from pieces of metal from the fallen World Trade Center buildings. The image to the left is Mars the planet that the rovers are on.
Spirit and Opportunity's solar panels generate roughly 140 watts for up to 4 hours per Martian day (sol). It stores the energy in lithium ion batteries for use at night. Spirit's on board computer uses a 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 128 MB of DRAM, 3 MB of EEPROM, and 256 MB of flash memory. The rovers operating temperatures range from -40 to +40°C and the radioisotope heater units heat it up. It has electrical heaters for backup.
Communications with the rovers is through a low-gain antenna communicating at a low data rate and a high-gain antenna, both in direct contact with Earth. A low-gain antenna is also used to communicate with the orbiting spacecrafts around Mars.
Comprehension
1) How long was Spirit's Estimated Mission Length?
a) 180 Days
b) 90 Sols
c)180 Sols
d) 90 Days
2) What Ended Spirit's Mission?
a) Batterie Loss
b) Wind storm
c) Getting Stuck
d) It's Still Operating
Spirit (Rover) (2004)-(2010)
Spirit also known as MER-2 is a exploration robot active from 2004 to 2010. It landed January 4, 2004 three weeks before its twin which landed on the other side of the planet (Opportunity[MER-B]). The name was chosen from a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. Spirit got stuck in late 2009 and the last contact from Earth was in March 22, 2010.
Spirit was sent to last for a 90-sol mission which it completed. Spirit was aided with cleaning events which used more solar energy and it still ended up functioning for about 20 times longer than NASA expected. Spirit also ended up traviling 7.73km when it was planned to only drive 600m allowing more Mars exploration.
On May 1, 2009, Spirit got caught up in some soft soil. NASA began to do simulations on Earth on how to get it out of the soil but on January 26, 2010, it was announced that the rover was irrecoverable. Spirit continued to give stationary research until March 22, 2010 when communications were lost. The image to the right and above is a computer sketch of Spirit and the video to the right is the launch of both Spirit and Opportunity. The first one is Spirit because it was launched 3 weeks before Opportunity. The video below is Spirit getting stuck in some loose ground.
Equipment Failures
Spirit was prepared
running for 20 times
that which
leads to more stress on certain components ending up with some mechanical failures. On sol 778 Spirit's front right wheel stopped working, which affected the way it was to be driven. Engineers decided to drive it backwards which turned out to be useful because it cleared away soil and helped Spirit to be able to take pictures of things that it wouldn't have been able to before.
Scientific tools also started to show some wear over time. Over time the diamond in the Rock Abrasion Tool began to wear down and before long the tool was only able to be used to brush its targets. All of the other tools worked until contact was lost but near Spirit's end the MIMOS II Mössbauer spectrometer started to take much longer to produce results. it did this because it's cobalt-57 gamma ray source was nearing half life. The image to the right and above is the Rock Abrasion Tool on Spirit.
Design and Construction
Spirit and Opportunity are 6 wheeled, solar powered robots with the dimensions of 1.5m x 2.3m x 1.6m and weights of 180kg. The six wheels on the robots are for the rough terrain and each wheel had its own motor. Both Spirit and Opportunity have shields to protect the cables on the drilling mechanisms that are made from pieces of metal from the fallen World Trade Center buildings. The image to the left is Mars the planet that the rovers are on.
Spirit and Opportunity's solar panels generate roughly 140 watts for up to 4 hours per Martian day (sol). It stores the energy in lithium ion batteries for use at night. Spirit's on board computer uses a 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 128 MB of DRAM, 3 MB of EEPROM, and 256 MB of flash memory. The rovers operating temperatures range from -40 to +40°C and the radioisotope heater units heat it up. It has electrical heaters for backup.
Communications with the rovers is through a low-gain antenna communicating at a low data rate and a high-gain antenna, both in direct contact with Earth. A low-gain antenna is also used to communicate with the orbiting spacecrafts around Mars.
Comprehension
1) How long was Spirit's Estimated Mission Length?
a) 180 Days
b) 90 Sols
c)180 Sols
d) 90 Days
2) What Ended Spirit's Mission?
a) Batterie Loss
b) Wind storm
c) Getting Stuck
d) It's Still Operating
Answers
1) b) 90 Sols
2) c) Getting Stuck
References